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When the Irish journalism event ‘MojoCon’ folded last year there was a huge intake of breath from newsrooms, career journalists and freelancers hoping to introduce the new wave of inclusive technology – smartphones and other mobile devices – to otherwise staid news organisations. Was Mobile Journalism dead? The simple answer is ‘No’. Hello MojoFest.

MojoCon’s prime mover, planner and all-round mobile journalism guru Glenn Mulcahy could have been forgiven for thinking his goose was cooked. After ploughing years into preaching the virtues of smartphone media production and workflows as a way to revolutionise news gathering, the chief sponsor – broadcaster RTE – decided to withdraw its support for the conference. The MojoCon Youtube channel went up in smoke overnight taking hours of precious educational content offline.

Glenn left RTE to set up his own business and decided to put all the goodwill and contacts he’d established with MojoCon into a new venture – MojoFest. From its base in Galway MoJoFest thrummed to the combined energy of journalists, marketers and filmmakers from all over the world. Proving that a winning concept will find a way MojoFest was as successful as its predecessor and looks set to continue for years to come.

Mo of What You Need

MojoFest 2018 kicked off with an assessment of how news giants like the BBC incorporate content made on mobile into broadcasts.

Tips and Tricks

And then of course there was the hefty mix of tips, tricks and rock-solid techniques for not only improving your own productions, but rivalling some of the results from cameras that cost thousands more than the humble smartphone.

Bit of Afters

Post-Festival there were a couple of incredible announcements that backed up everything being discussed. Adobe announced ‘Project Rush’ which merges parts of Premiere, After Effects, and Audition into an all-in-one video app that lets producers master videos right from a mobile device.

Project Rush

Adobe’s Project Rush could be a pivotal moment in the switch from professional video editing from desktop to mobile.

But the real surprise news was that Android could well take over as the mobile journalist’s platform as choice, despite Apple’s early dominance. And it’s not just down to cost – the apps, accessories and cameras have improved immeasurably.

But for a real in-depth look at the apps and tools that are making the community tick try Corinne Podger’s comprehensive list on Google Docs highlighting mobile’s rise as a holistic storytelling device. And add Jeremy Caplan’s list of more than 100 incredible mobile tools for content creators to try.

Livestreaming the Mojo Show

If you want to catch up on all the MojoFest sessions then Peter Stewart’s Live Streaming Handbook page on Facebook has many live recordings of the presentations captured on – you guessed it – a mobile device.